(Winter's POV)

Winter stared at her phone, the accusatory text messages from Yunjin glaring back at her like a slap in the face.

"Who's that girl you were talking to at the party last night? You two looked awfully cozy."

"I saw you laughing with that guy from your office. Are you cheating on me?"

"You're always working late these days. Are you sure it's just work keeping you busy?"

The messages went on and on, each one more paranoid and accusatory than the last. Winter felt a headache brewing behind her eyes, a dull throb that matched the ache in her chest.

This wasn't the first time Yunjin had bombarded her with jealous texts and baseless accusations. Lately, it seemed like every interaction Winter had with another human being was grounds for suspicion in Yunjin's eyes.

A friendly chat with a colleague at a work event? Obviously flirting.

A late night at the office preparing for a big case? Clearly an excuse to sneak around behind Yunjin's back.

It was exhausting, constantly having to defend herself against imagined slights and fabricated betrayals. Winter felt like she was walking on eggshells, always on guard for the next innocuous thing that would set Yunjin off.

She'd tried to reassure her girlfriend, to explain that she only had eyes for her, that she would never even dream of being unfaithful. But Yunjin seemed determined to twist every word, every action into evidence of Winter's supposed duplicity.

"I saw the way you smiled at her," Yunjin had hissed after Winter had politely greeted a barista at their favorite coffee shop. "You never smile at me like that anymore."

"That's not true," Winter had argued, stung by the accusation. "I smile at you all the time, Yun. You're being ridiculous."

But Yunjin had just laughed, cold and mocking. "Oh, I'm being ridiculous? That's rich coming from the woman who can't keep it in her pants long enough to order a ing latte."

Winter had gaped at her, stunned by the crudeness of the jab. "Are you serious right now? I was just being friendly! That doesn't mean I want to sleep with her!"

"Could've fooled me," Yunjin had muttered, storming out of the coffee shop and leaving Winter to stare after her in bewildered hurt.

It was like no matter what Winter said or did, Yunjin found a way to twist it, to make it fit her narrative of betrayal and deceit. Winter was starting to feel like she was losing her grip on reality, constantly second-guessing her own words and actions.

Maybe Yunjin was right. Maybe she was being too friendly, too open with other people.

Maybe she needed to be more careful, more guarded to avoid giving the wrong impression.

The thought made Winter feel sick, made her want to scream in frustration. She'd always prided herself on her independence, her ability to connect with people from all walks of life. The idea of censoring herself, of restricting her interactions just to appease Yunjin's irrational jealousy felt like a betrayal of who she was.

But what choice did she have? She loved Yunjin, loved her with a fierce, desperate intensity that sometimes scared her. The thought of losing her, of watching their relationship crumble under the weight of mistrust and accusation was too awful to contemplate.

So she would try. She would be more cautious, more circumspect in her dealings with others. She would reassure Yunjin of her love and devotion until she was blue in the face, and do whatever it took to ease her girlfriend's fears.

Even if it meant losing pieces of herself in the process.

As if on cue, her phone buzzed with a new message from Yunjin. Winter braced herself for another barrage of accusations, another twist of the knife in her gut.

But when she opened the text, what she found instead made her heart stutter in her chest.

"Baby, I'm so sorry for how I've been acting. I know I've been crazy lately, seeing things that aren't there. I just love you so much, the thought of losing you makes me irrational. Please forgive me. You're my everything."

Winter stared at the words, feeling the vice around her heart loosen just a fraction. This was the Yunjin she knew, the one she'd fallen in love with - sweet, contrite, adoring.

The whiplash of it made her head spin, made her wonder if she'd imagined the cruel accusations, the biting words. Had she overreacted? Blown things out of proportion in her own mind?

No, she knew she hadn't. The hurt, the self-doubt - that was all too real to be a figment of her imagination.

But god, it was tempting to let herself be swept away by Yunjin's words, to bask in the glow of her love and let everything else fall away. To believe, just for a moment, that they could find their way back to the easy, joyful love they'd once shared.

With shaking fingers, Winter typed out a reply.

"I forgive you, baby. I know you didn't mean it. I love you too, more than anything. We'll get through this, I promise."

She hit send before she could second-guess herself, before the doubts could creep back in. She had to believe they could make this work. She had to believe their love was stronger than the darkness threatening to tear them apart.

Winter set her phone aside, closing her eyes and taking a deep, steadying breath. Tomorrow will be better. Yunjin would be better, and so would she. They'd find their way back to each other, back to the unshakeable foundation they'd built.

She had to believe that. She had to.

Because the alternative - that this cycle of jealousy and recrimination, of cruelty and contrition was all their love amounted to - was too devastating to contemplate.

So she would keep trying. Keep fighting. Keep loving Yunjin with every fractured piece of her heart.

Even if it destroyed her in the end.

–

Winter blinked, startled out of her reverie by a hand waving in front of her face. She looked up to see Ningning staring at her, eyebrows raised in a mix of concern and amusement.

"Earth to Winter?" Ningning said, a slight teasing lilt to her voice. "Where'd you go just now? You were a million miles away."

Winter shook her head, forcing a smile as she pushed the painful memories of her failed relationship back into the locked box in her mind. It had been a year since she and Yunjin had finally called it quits, but the scars of their tumultuous time together still felt raw some days. "Sorry, just got lost in thought for a moment. What were you saying?"

Ningning studied her for a beat, her eyes a little too knowing for Winter's comfort. But she didn't push, instead repeating her earlier question. "I said, are you sure about this whole fake dating thing with Karina? It seems like a lot of trouble to go to just to get Yunjin off your back."

Winter shrugged, falling back on her lawyer's instinct to argue her case. "It's the most efficient solution. Yunjin's not going to back down unless she sees concrete proof that I've moved on. And wh